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Tuesday 11 May 2004

‘CUTTING EDGE’ TECHNOLOGY TO SECURE RAILWAY SAFETY

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Men have been seen dangling from ropes high above railway tracks in Cumbria, fitting what look like giant steel hairnets to the edges of the railway cuttings. But it’s nothing to do with the current series of TV’s hair salon drama ‘Cutting It’; it’s just the latest device to be used by Network Rail in the battle against the elements. Much of the railway in Cumbria passes through sheer-sided rock cuttings. Winter weather can be very harsh and it is not unusual for water, frost or snow to get into the rock face, and for pieces of rock or even boulders to break away and end up on the railway line. The end result could be disastrous if a train was to hit the rocks and become derailed. To prevent this happening, the North West Structures Alliance (a partnership between Network Rail and Edmund Nuttall Ltd) used specialist contractors to solve the problem. Firstly they covered the tracks below with sheeting to catch falling rocks. Then abseilers went over the edge of the cutting to prise away any loose rocks and bigger pieces that were considered to be a potential problem. Having done that they then used self-drilling rock bolts, which were secured along the top of the cutting, from which the steel mesh ‘netting’ was suspended. - more - Cutting – 2 The netting is fixed at track level so that any rocks that do break away from the cutting are trapped there safely before they can reach the railway line. From time to time engineers can come along and release the bottom of the net to remove any fallen rocks. Work costing a total of nearly £2m was carried out between January and April at three sites on the Settle to Carlisle line and at Kents Bank in Cumbria.